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If you are the owner of a social network, a social website, a social app or any other socially enabled communication platform on the web, then you deserve to sit back, relax and have a cigar because you are part of the (hype) machine and that machine is in full swing!

The last month has been amazing in terms of telling a story of the influence of social media. Three singular, unrelated events unfurled to tell a story of the scope of social media and the virtual hype machine that it feeds, and you are insane if you’re not paying attention. If you’re a brand marketer, there are some interesting concepts to take away as well.

First we witnessed the Susan G Komen/Planned Parenthood social media fiasco and the Stop SOPA campaign, both of which were significant watershed moments in terms of using the web and social media to influence real world activity. Though not globally on par with the Arab Spring from last year, both of these were examples of a viral torrent of support or condemnation for their respective movements. In both situations, a movement began in social media that caused the reversal of political-hot-button issues and the people’s voice was heard. Neither situation would have occurred without the popularity of social media, at the very least neither would have been reversed in such a short time.

The second event I will call out is this past week’s passing of Whitney Houston the night before the Grammy Awards. She was a huge influence in music, and one of the biggest, most definable voices ever recorded, and social media was immediately ablaze with the discussion of the sad event. The Grammy Awards followed up quickly, even changing some of their production to fit in the necessary tributes. The news of Whitney Houston’s death went worldwide in seconds, and everyone was commenting on it from all sides of the globe.

The third event is one that’s pending, and hasn’t even taken place yet. It’s the IPO for Facebook. Facebook’s impending celebration has the hearts of the valley all a flutter with the scent of money. It smells like 1999 again, with secretaries and administrative assistants alike projected to be millionaires, and hundreds of people likely preparing to put down deposits on new homes in San Francisco. Facebook is forecasted to be the largest tech IPO in history, and the ad business seems in line with this as they have selected Facebook as a preferred partner for ad dollars, surpassing Google in a recent industry survey. If Facebook is indeed as big as it proclaims it will be, then social will have overtaken search as the premier darling of the data-driven Internet ad business.

On the surface these three events are only associated by one thing; the fact that they center around social media. That in itself is all you need. Social media is the modern hype machine, but unlike the days of Public Enemy, in this case you probably should believe the hype. The learning that I see here is that social media, and specifically the advent of Facebook and Twitter, is causing a reversal in the fragmentation of media. For years we’ve discussed the fragmentation of the media landscape, and how consumers are more difficult to reach with an effective frequency because of the way they spend their day. What these moments are telling me is that when there’s a topic of interest to a large group of people, and when the hype machine is in full force, fragmentation can be reversed and a singular point of view can actually be established in a small number of places. All of these situations drove people to social media, and social media became the hub for all of this activity. The fragmentation only takes place before users flock to social media. Social is the new hub.

Even in the case of the death of Whitney Houston, USA Today was running news stories on its iPad and iPhone apps that were nothing more than a collection of tweets from famous celebrities. Their version of a news story was the collection of celebrity tweets? That proves, if nothing else, that the journalists for USA Today were going to Twitter for their breaking news.

Fragmentation may be alive in terms of initial broadcast, but the machine is alive and well, and it is not going anywhere. The machine is working, and the masses can be culled together for a single action, if you have a message that resonates with them. The Superbowl showed that advertising could be used in this way, if you have the money to spend to reach enough of the audience at least once. The lesson for a marketer is that if you are strategic, and you have enough money, you can indeed influence a large group of people at once. You can put the hype machine to work for you.

I think we sometimes tend to overlook just how important Amazon is to the web. In all the buzz and hullabaloo of IPO’s and venture capital funding, we take for granted that Amazon is basically the Wal-Mart of the web. That being said, there are some issues that should be raised and paid attention to.

It wasn’t so long ago that Amazon was just a simple little bookstore on the web. They were in a pitched battle with Borders and Barnes & Noble for online literary supremacy, and now they’re far more than a simple little bookstore and those “brick and mortar” stores are either dead or dying.

Amazon expanded its business to include music, movies, toys, and eventually just about everything else under the sun. They developed and patented their “One-Click” shopping process, and transformed the world of considered purchases into impulse buying, thereby lowering the barrier for decision-making adults on whether or not to buy a product. Their recommendation engine has blazed the trail for every data-targeting company that exists, and the pedigree of the people who have worked at Amazon can be seen throughout the world of e-Commerce as those people represent the cream of the crop for the online consumer business.

As a consumer, I start my shopping experience with Amazon, and when it comes to making a purchase decision most consumers are willing to pay 5-10% more and buy it from Amazon than to buy it from an online retailer they’ve never heard of. The brand “Amazon” is synonymous with customer service, fast delivery, quality products, and (for many people) free shipping. Amazon flooded the market with banners and buttons back in the day proclaiming free shipping to get trial, and it worked. That and the industry best practice case study of the Amazon Affiliate Program, which every e-tailer has tried to emulate since it began.

Of course, Amazon also deserves to get some of the blame for what’s happening to local business, in much the same way as Wal-Mart does. When Wal-Mart comes into a market, its routine that smaller retailers go up in arms because they can’t compete with the price and selection that Wal-Mart offers. Amazon has the same gripe against it, plus they don’t pay state sales tax. That third leg of the proverbial stool is having a profound effect on local business, and as a result I’ve started to see local marketing from groups of store-owners and chamber of commerce groups practically pleading with consumers to “shop local” and support your local business’ so that tax money can be fed back into the local community.

I agree with this movement, and I think people should pay attention. It doesn’t mean you have to stop shopping with Amazon, or Wal-Mart for that matter. It just means that every few purchases you make, try to buy something local. Support your local bookstore, or record store, or grocery store, or boutique clothing store. Support your local pet store, or your local toy store. The prices are certain to be higher than what you’re paying at Amazon, but they won’t be astronomical and these stores need your business. They need you to come in and peruse and buy, rather than come in, peruse, and then go to Amazon to get it for less.

I’m all for finding deals, but once in awhile you have to support your local business, at least until Amazon and the government determine a way to work out the sales tax situation.

Companies take many different roads in their journeys to success. We imagine that the path from idea in a garage to IPO is a smooth set of steps from Angel Funding to A, then B, and then filing. But the more I dig into the histories of start-ups the more I am convinced that every company has its own unique story.

And here’s a really interesting one. Mamalode, a start-up based in Missoula, MT, is a combined online/offline publication geared to meeting the needs of today’s Mom. The key to Mamalode, it appears, is the idea that it offers a unique form of respect and admiration for the power and wonder of Motherhood.

Mamalode began as a local print publication geared to serving the needs of the local Missoula community. But clearly their content and editorial voice are quite powerful; they soon had paid subscribers in 45 states and several countries around the world.

And how is that editorial voice different? Well, a lot of ways. First, there is a decidedly first person emphasis – one of Moms talking to other Moms about the everyday events in their lives in a style that oozes empathy and alliance. While the writing is often excellent, and professionally driven, its subject matter is right down in there washing out the sippy cups. Further, reader voices aren’t simply given a forum, they are celebrated and highlighted in major ways across the site.

Often in marketing there seems to be a conventional wisdom that the way to connect with Moms is to milquetoast the content, video kids making chaos in a kitchen, and have pictures of frazzled Moms trying to cope.

It’s fundamentally condescension to the people who, more than any other group, control the purse strings of society. And far from being dowdy marms that ubercool adbiz types prefer to look at with either disdain or pity, they are among the strongest, most progressive thinkers and consumers.

I’ve spent many years targeting Moms in my advertising career, and the lessons I have learned boil down to four things:Moms control pretty much every purchase in a household. Maybe not motor oil brand choice. But other than that…

Even more than information, Moms seek connection – to one another, to their families, and to things and ideas that make life better.

Moms prefer real. Not stereotyped idyllic imagery, and not stereotyped over the top

Mama Chaos. They want to understand how something fits into their routines and makes being a Mom more rewarding.

Moms WANT TO KNOW ABOUT PRODUCTS that can help them. They don’t view marketer messages as an intrusion if they deliver real information and value.

Founder Elke Govertsen is clearly a driving force behind the unique perspective and very rich editorial style of this pub. Here’s how she describes the business imperative of talking to Moms in a way that is meaningful.

When you look at the online presence, the first thing you may notice is that it ISN’T packed with 23 ways to… stories, or how to. They’ve wisely realized that there are more than enough sources for that from the legacy Mommy sites. Not to say that you don’t learn things on the site. For indeed it is impossible not to. But it’s the way you learn – as if you were having a conversation with a real person and sharing give and take, that makes the site so rich and compelling.

From a marketing perspective, the company really embraces marketers, partly out of pragmatism but also because connecting Moms with products that make life better is a key part of their offering. I’d liken it to Oprah’s Favorite Things, in that the team clearly understands that Moms are perfectly happy to learn about and use products that address real needs. That product based solutions aren’t disdained but rather welcomes with open arms.

The Mamalode infrastructure is designed to serve multiple communities, enabling a combination of both regionally driven and national content. Hey, I know that there are lots of local pubs out there, but I wanted to intro you to this property because I really think they are on to something. With an editorial voice that offers lower costs through a combination of professional and UGC content, their more affordable way to do local, and the really compelling and addictive voice of the site, I expect that they will create a significant national media presence – perhaps market by market? – in the months and years ahead. And it didn’t get its start at Stanford, or through an A round. But rather through a belief in celebrating the most important people in our families – and our economy.

We’re now well into 2011 and it’s starting to look and smell a little bit like 2000. Once again we have M&A activity, consolidations and IPO’s taking place on a weekly basis that generate mass coverage. The news is out there, led by the Huffington Post being acquired by AOL, and followed closely by news of Linkedin and Pandora filing for IPO’s. Meanwhile we see angels and VC’s once again throwing money at companies with a vengeance not seen since… well… mid-to-late 2000! But does this wave of hype and excitement signal an impending collapse based on overvaluation, like we saw in the dot com bubble?

For what it’s worth, I don’t think so. Back then the hype was just hype, and the over-inflation was based on prospective value in the marketplace rather than real revenues. These days the growth and investments are based on real revenue, though some may argue the value of some of these companies are slightly exaggerated, but that means the floor is more stable than it was in 2000. These companies are generating real revenue, they are growing, and the investors and speculators are betting their futures on real companies rather than vaporware.

Companies like LinkedIn and Pandora offer real value to consumers. These companies generate real money and going public makes sense because they’ve paid their dues and they can continue to grow. The speculation on their respective futures may drive a minor bubble at some point, but the fact is if there were another “margin call”, the value of these businesses would only go down so far, they wouldn’t drop to zero. They could decrease to the point where their actual revenues reside, but that’s far better than most companies in 2000 and 2001. You can certainly question their multiples for valuation, but you can’t question that there is value in and of itself.

The investment dollars that are going into these businesses to create value are also better placed than they were in 2000. Leading up to the last dot-com bubble there was a period of irrational expenditure, and that’s not the case this time around. We’re coming off the worst recession in a very long time, and there are still signs of instability in the economy. Housing is still down, and unemployment is still higher than we would like. There’s still conservative optimism. There’s minimal inflation of value because most other markets are artificially being held down right now. If anything, the tech sector may actually begin to lead the growth of the economy and create more value as a halo effect for the US. These companies are creating jobs, and that’s what we need to see more of right now, in order to sustain continued economic growth.

On the flip side, the entrepreneurs these days are scrappier than they were in 2000, and I’ll go out on a limb and say they’re even smarter. I can’t foresee any more examples like what happened with Boo.com, when they spent $188 million in 6 months. The people behind the money are more cautious and more watchful, and if anything they are more conservative than anyone was back then.

No – I don’t see another bubble, per se, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still be cautious. If you’re looking for money in this environment, be sure to do your homework. If you’re investing in this environment, be sure to do your homework. If you cover the companies on either side of this relationship, be sure to do your homework. If we can maintain a base of rationale thinking we could see some very interesting, and very valuable, growth over the next few years and that growth could lead the rest of the country into a new age of digital and/or industrial renaissance. Enjoy the ride everyone!!